1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to railroad locomotives having gear covers, and in particular to those locomotives which use the gear covers as a lubricant reservoir.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In railroad diesel locomotives, the lubricant for traction motor and wheel axle gears is contained in the gear covers which form a reservoir for this lubricant. Diesel locomotive trucks are subjected to extremes of temperature, shock, vibration, rain, snow, and other hostile conditions. Due to the severe environment in which diesel locomotive trucks operate, traction motor/wheel axle gear covers often leak. The resulting loss of lubricant will cause a catastrophic failure of the gears.
At the present time, this problem is dealt with by periodic inspection of lubricant in the gear covers. Most railroads inspect the gear covers approximately once every two weeks. If a leak is detected, the leak is sealed, and the lubricant is replenished. If the leak is severe, the entire gear cover will be replaced, and the lubricant refilled. In order to perform this inspection, the locomotives must be taken out of service and placed over a track pit to allow for a visual inspection of the lubricant level in the gear covers. Pit inspection is necessary to reduce the chances of accidents and harm to the railroad personnel. Such inspections are costly to the railroads, both in labor and in amount of time that the locomotive must be taken out of service during inspection.